Rollers came in the mail today...
 

...how do I not die? I've almost killed myself a few times now. Any tricks?

Also, once I get the hang of it, any tips to see improvement in fitness over the winter? I've heard things about a HR monitor, but I have no idea what I would do with it.

Put them in a doorway, so you can hold yourself up and/or bang your shoulder on either side before you slide off.

search engine reveals all.

pedal until your legs hurt and the sweat drips onto your computer- then pedal some more. you shouldn't need a heart rate monitor to tell you when you are hurting.

Use platform pedals to get a hang of it first, worked great for me.

Step #1 - Put video camera facing rollers.
Step #2 - Start video
Step #3 - Get on rollers
Step #4 - I'll leave this as a suprise
Step #5 - Upload video to youtube and post link here. :D

I will most certainly do this for the lol's.

This is a good start.

I also found it helpful to either have a real or imaginary line (make one with masking tape) about 10 feet in front of you, perpendicular to your bike....so you can look ahead and focus on riding to the line.

I am pretty much a total klutz and it only took me about 30 minutes to feel comfortable on rollers. You can probably do better.

there's a lot of muscle memory that you'll eventually pick up with time.

i can't use rollers for more than 20 minutes, after that i get bored, start looking around and drift off the rollers, sometimes painfully

My condolences.

Third time's the charm! Just did it for about 10 minutes and felt the need to come back and spread the good news.

Oh, and sorry for no funny youtube video. :(

Glad you got the hang of it. Soon you will be doing it no hands.

Rollers are ok but riding outside is way better. Reserve the rollers for when roads are too icy to ride on safely.

Well, the roads are definitely still safe to ride on, but I did have to scrape ice off of my window this morning before work...

Here ya go, this will help you realize how "easy" they are. :D


Here is another really good one but the music is not safe for work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yFv5Kbi4NY

Got mine in the mail today too. The cheap Nashbar ones. They came ready-to-use right out of the box, which was both convenient and kind of humorous. I haven't had a lot of time to play around with them yet, just to make sure they work. Side-to-side movement was a lot more exaggerated, but it didn't seem like it would be too difficult to use. We'll see.

Exactly the same ones I got, cheap nashbar ones. Work great. They were 20% off, then I put in some coupon code for another 20% off of a single item. Got them for a pretty good price I think.

I'm going to need to see someone do a wheelie on rollers. Don't be scared.

Most of my roller crashes have happened when I started to get tired and lost control falling off to one side; I wasn't able to unclip from the pedals fast enough. Taking a break while you still have good form/control should prevent this from happening, it did for me.

Okay, rode for about an hour tonight, here are my observations...

They weren't easy, not like I had first thought. The first time I tried them for like two minutes with sneakers on, against a wall. That was easy. Tonight I initially set it up in the middle of the room with a chair on either side. And clipless. Needless to say I fell off the side and crashed.

So I moved it into a doorway and it was a bit better. I was able to begin riding normally pretty quickly and could spin up to 150rpm+, but the amount of wobble is really intense. I thought I could hold a pretty straight line! My body was more tense than usual so my core began to get tired. Also I wasn't able to ride with no hands or stand up, so that was kind of limiting. I hope I'll learn how to soon.

Resistance level was fine. The drums are like 3.35" or something.

Overall it was pretty cool. I'm sure it'll help my bike handling.

I realized my cadence sucks because I could barely do 20 minutes without feeling like crap. I must not realize how much I coast on the road. Time to get to work.

I used to always setup my rollers next to a sofa when I was first getting used to them. Much nicer to bail onto a comfy couch than to a floor.

You'll probably need to gear up (harder) one more gear for the same feel on rollers. An HRM is good for knowing if you are working your heart or your legs. No sense in blowing out your cardio before your legs get tired. Get the Chris Carmicheal book - Time Crunched Cyclist - and work his training sets on rollers. Lots of good information in that book on training with an HRM.

can i suggest something simple?

(1) don't look down. look straight ahead.
(2) if feel wobble, pedal faster. the bike will right itself.
(3) don't brake.

follow these, and you will not fall.

riding next to a wall will make it HARDER to learn. this is like telling someone that the best way to learn how to high dive is to keep one hand on the ladder until you're ready.

if you follow 1 and 2, you'll be able to pedal with no hands quickly.

I used rollers extensively before the summer of 2006 in the basement of my house. I had a television set up in front of them as well as a fan for cooling, and I rode next to a lolly pole so I had something sturdy to grab onto in the event I started to drift off the side. I quickly got to the point where I could go no hands, standing up, could remove a t-shirt if necessary, grab drinks from the water bottle, and change channels with the remote, all without losing my balance. Also, my rollers came with a resistance unit but I've never felt the need to use it; I get plenty tired just trying to maintain 25mph.